The Curse
by Peeves
Summary: Dumbledore has arranged for one of the most popular wizard bands of the century to play at Hogwarts over Xmas, and what will happen? Someone review and TELL me!


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The Curse

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A/N: This currently lacks a plot; I've got the characters figured out, and some vague events... but anyway. If anyone has any ideas, stick em in the review box folks.

DISCLAIMER: Any characters you recognise as JK Rowling's ain't mine, obviously. 

Even though Christmas at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was always amazing, there was usually only a very short list of pupils who stayed on. This year however, the list had taken over four scrolls. 

Professor McGonagall's eyes twinkled as she scanned over the list. Harry Potter's name was there, as it had been for every year he had been attending the school. Fred and George Weasley had signed on, along with their brother Ron and sister Ginny. Hermione Granger, even Draco Malfoy had primly signed his name on the list. 

Professor McGonagall knew why they had all decided to miss the cheer of being at home with their families: _The Curse_ were coming - a well known wizard rock band. Four men, well boys really, who had learned to play Muggle instruments. McGonagall didn't entirely condone the band, but Dumbledore had paid them ten galleons each to come and play at the Yule Ball and the pupils had been delighted at the announcement. And anyway, she thought wryly, the drummer was rather nice.

"Are there many this year?" Professor Flitwick called cheerfully, bumbling by wearing a Santa Claus hat rather than his usual peak. 

"Yes," McGonagall smiled at him. "There must be about one hundred and fifty pupils gracing us with their presence this year,"

"That many?" Madam Hooch arrived in the Staff Room "We'll have our work cut out for us,"

"When are they arriving?" Professor Trelawney swanned out of the accompanying mini-kitchen, which was attached to the Staff Room.

"Who?" asked Hooch, blinking.

"The band," explained McGonagall. Conversations in the Staffroom often ended up this way - interruptions, confused questions, and exasperated answers. It was part of faculty life. 

"The band are arriving next Thursday, at around seven o'clock in the evening," Flitwick read off a parchment memo "The Heads of Houses and Headmaster Dumbledore are expected to greet them out in the grounds." 

Cold grey stairs leading up, seemingly forever, faced her. 

She sighed, delivering mail wasn't her ideal job, in fact she even had a degree in English literature and she spent her time deciphering addresses. It wasn't fair. She pushed her hair out of her eyes, and started up the stairs. 

It took about ten minutes to get through all the letters, and the last one was too big to fit through the letter box. She tapped the door, and waited impatiently. 

She was about to turn away, when the door burst open. Her jaw dropped, and her mouth dried.

"I...I... I-I've got your mail..." she thrust the package forward.

"Thanks," the guy who had opened the door smiled briefly. He had obviously been woken up by the door going, and was clad only in black boxers. He had long sepia coloured hair; it reached to his backside and was tied up in a rough ponytail. Long, dark strands strayed across his face. He was well built; in fact he was downright muscular. His left arm was tattooed from shoulder to wrist in a Celtic pattern, and he had smaller ones on his face, one through his left eye, and a tiny flick under it. 

The post woman almost sighed in disappointment as he closed the door.

"We keep getting some guy's mail, Bleu," the man spoke to a slim, well dressed boy with tidy brown hair who had obviously just finished getting ready.

"Muggle mail," Bleu looked fascinated. "What a stupid system, huh?"

"Yeah," The two were members of _The Curse_, Bleu was the drummer, and the scarcely dressed tattooed man was Jade. Of course, all the members had changed their names to suit their trade 

"Put it on the pile," instructed Bleu, signalling to a large pile of unopened envelopes and packages. They weren't allowed to open them, according to Bleu anyway. 

"Oh god," Jade rubbed his eyes, staring out of the French windows. Four exhausted owls were carrying a huge sack towards them. Bleu looked up, and mentally thanked Merlin that it was a misty December morning.

"FAN MAIL!" yelled Jade, waking up the other two band members - Tic and Astro. 

Tic stumbled out of his bedroom; he was the youngest member, and Bleu's brother. 

He was wearing a pair of blue and white stripy pyjamas, and his brown hair was tousled and longish. 

Astro was much more careful when he exited his room. He padded lightly across the room, which was pristinely tidy. He had a pair of sunglasses on, even though he was just up. A long purple night-gown covered him to his knees, and his hair was blond, loose, and elbow length.

"Fan mail guys," sighed Bleu "You know the routine, get your quills out. We might as well start now before breakfast arrives,"

Tic opened the window, and the owls gratefully dumped the sack. They fluttered to a nearby perch and settled, going to sleep instantly. 

The band had a PO Box for fan mail, and an overworked old man there passed on all the fanmail sent to them. 

"Jade, Me, Astro, Tic, Tic, Tic, Tic..." Bleu began to sort the mail. 

Tic's fans included most of the female wizarding population; he always had the most fanmail.

Jade slumped lazily on to a beanbag, and lit himself a cigarette before ripping open the first envelope. 

_Dear Jade,_

I think that you are very talented and I was hoping you could send me an autograph. You and the rest of the band will be at my school near Christmas - I can't wait...

Jade exhaled a puff of smoke, and began to scribble a reply: "Dear Ron..."

Tic blinked as he lifted up three identical envelopes. "Ginny Weasley's a bit enthusiastic..."

"A lot of this stuff is from Hogwarts," commented Bleu, then to Astro he said "Ast, you've got a big pile there, the first one who's done'll read it to you."

Astro had been born blind, but a spell had been cast over him to give him the gift of second sight. Still, that didn't allow him to read or write it was more instinct than real eyesight.

"This one's in Braille," he sounded delighted that someone had bothered. Usually, people assumed that because he could still play his saxophone that it meant he could read. 

The other three shared a glad look; sometimes they had awful survivor guilt about Astro's blindness, even though he was rarely phased by it.

"Come on guys, get writing!"

At Hogwarts, the week dragged by. When Thursday came there was not a window facing the lake that was free of pupil eyes gazing out. 

The faculty welcome group stood huddled in the courtyard, wearing thick winter robes. 

McGonagall, Snape, Flitwick, Sprout, Hagrid and Dumbledore watched the skies expectantly. They knew that the band would be arriving by hippogriff coach, and Hagrid had offered to join the committee in order to take care of the beasts.

"This is so exciting!" burbled Professor Sprout, rubbing her fingers through her gloves to stop them from going numb.

Before any more asinine comments could escape, a huge silhouette against grey snow-clouds plunged towards them. The coach swooped in and landed smoothly, and as soon as the hippogriffs had steadied Hagrid was at their sides, muttering polite greetings and bowing. 

As the door opened slowly, Professor Flitwick and Sprout were hanging onto each other in excitement. 

"Welcome to Hogwarts..." 

The Great Hall was even noisier than usual. The students were buzzing about the arrival of _The Curse_, and they kept furtively glancing at the doors. 

Everyone heard Draco Malfoy declaring that his father knew their manager, but only Crabbe and Goyle really believed him.

Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger and Harry Potter were perhaps the least impressed in the whole hall. 

"What an idiot," spat Ron "The band don't even have a manager, you'd think he'd get his facts right before he starts lying!"

Harry smiled and said "When you're a Malfoy you don't need the right facts, you just pay to make them right later on."

Fred and George Weasley were huddled with their friend Lee Jordan across the table. Twin ginger scalps and one dredlocked was all Harry could see. He was desperately curious, but every time he tried to attract the trio's attention he was met with ignorant comments like "Can you hear anything Fred?" and "Why, NO George! How about you, Lee?"

Hermione gasped loudly, and pointed at the door to the Great Hall. It had been opened fully, and the band members were standing in it.

Jade looked his trademarked moody self, Astro had his magic wand doubling as a cane and was standing calmly, Bleu looked worried, as though he had been looking for the Great Hall for some time, and Tic looked just as he should - perfect and charming, or so Hermione thought. 

The Hall took a simultaneous gasp. There was so little air in the room that it was perfectly plausible for most of the people inside to pass out. Before the screaming could start, Dumbledore stood up and said "Ah! You made it, welcome, welcome. Do come in! Now, I thought it might be good to sort you all into houses, and then you could all sit with the pupils."

A cheer erupted across the Hall, and it took five minutes to calm everybody down. 

Astro was the first to put the Sorting Hat on, it mumbled politely into his ear, and then cried "Hufflepuff!" at the top of his lungs. Harry didn't know what member he wanted for Gryffindor - and he was sure the hat would split them four ways - but Ron was desperate for Jade. Harry thought that it was more likely to be Bleu or Tic, because Jade certainly looked like a Slytherin. 

Bleu was up next; the hat did not hesitate in placing him with Ravenclaw. The Ravenclaws looked slightly jealous of the other Houses, but still cheered as Bleu joined them.

Tic nervously picked up the hat, and put it on his head. Harry watched, and noticed the hat was taking its time in placing Tic. Eventually - "Slytherin!" 

The Slytherin girls squealed while the boys looked rather disgusted. The Gryffindor table were gaping at Tic sitting neatly at the Slytherin table. 

As a polite measure, Jade tried on the hat anyway. 

"Gryffindor!" The hat didn't even need to speak to Jade. Ron was ecstatic and cheered just a little too loudly.

"Hi!" Everyone was looking at Jade, but Ginny Weasley was the first to speak to him.

No one, least of all Ginny herself, had expected that. She blushed bright red and looked away, suddenly intent on the table.

"A'right," he waited for Ginny to look at him before continuing. She was so red that her hair paled in comparison. "What's your name?"

"Ginny ... Ginny Weasley,"

"Weasley?" Jade paused. "The name rings a bell..." 

"It does?" Ron, Fred and George all leaned closer, grinning.

"Okay, so it rings four bells! Uh... Ray Weasley? Richard... Ryan..."

"Ron!" Ron blurted, unable to keep himself under control any longer. "I'm Ron Weasley!"

"Right, Ron. I knew it started with an R."

The feast lasted an hour longer than it should have, but eventually Professor McGonagall had managed to shoo the pupils and Dumbledore out of the Hall. 

Everyone was disappointed as the band headed for private rooms rather than sleeping in the dorms of the houses they were sorted in to, but up in the common rooms they soon forgot about it with excited chatter. 

"He remembered us!" 

"You never forget a Weasley!" 

"Let alone identical ones!" 

The Weasleys were perhaps the most excited of all, and Fred and George kept exchanging secretive glances with Lee Jordan. Harry was suspicious, but too tired to ask. 

He went to bed before everyone else, claiming a headache he thought might be on the way. It was probably for the best, because if he had been creeping around with Fred, George and Lee he would have been in too much trouble to go to the concert the following night. 

"Bloody hell," mumbled Lee, freezing cold in his pyjamas and barefoot (he wasn't as prepared as the twins were). 

"The secret passages are always cold," whispered Fred, as George carefully pulled a book out of the shelf. He didn't have much of a perspective, but he couldn't hear Filch or Mrs Norris anywhere. 

"Clear," George pressed the loose brick on the wall, and the bookshelf swung open smoothly, which was a sign of just how often Fred and George used it. 

A thump made the trio stop creeping out into the library. 

"Did you hear that?" hissed Fred, eyes wide.

"It was probably nothing," Lee shrugged it off. "This way," they turned left, away from the passage, which automatically swung shut. None of them saw Argus Filch sprawled behind it, clutching his nose. 

"This feels too easy," Fred stopped as they reached the entrance hall. "We haven't even had to dodge Mrs Norris yet,"   
"I know," agreed George. He continued in a much softer, barely audible voice. "I get the feeling we're being watched. But, I have an idea. We'll split up, Filch and Mrs Norris can only follow two of us," 

"Great," Fred added. "And this would be a great time to try out Mission Norris, don't you?"  
Three heads nodded in agreement, and they split up. Fred slipped out the front doors, begging them to keep quiet because he was only going out to get some air; Lee crept through into the Great Hall, and George moved quickly towards the Dungeons.

_George Weasley, the biggest idiot to walk the planet since Gilderoy Lockhart, _thought George as he just had time to leap behind a pillar to avoid Snape. 

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I bet with that nose he can smell this, he tightened his grip on the bag of catnip, bought on a whim while Arthur Weasley had treated the children to a Muggle weekend. Mrs Norris was rolling on the ground somewhere up the stairs, sniffing the stuff and meowing, George was laying trail, which would surely teach the cat a damn good lesson. Of course, he would have to get in to Snape's storage cupboard. He didn't remember volunteering for this job, either. 

"Peeves!" spat Lee, glaring at the poltergeist. He realised that with Peeves in the room it would make performing the originally planned prank more difficult to do anonymously, and that Filch was probably heading in his direction. 

"Naughty naughty Gryffindies!" chanted Peeves, flying around in circles near the ceiling. "MISTER FIIIILCH SMELLS LIKE ROTTING FISH!" 

"Peeves!" Lee dashed across the room, and hid under the Hufflepuff table. Filch arrived in the Great Hall, panting and covered in mud. He shouted angrily at Peeves, threatening banishment and something Lee wouldn't even repeat for money. Luckily, he didn't suspect that there was a cold Gryffindor cowering under the Hufflepuff table, and left after Peeves was finished insulting him. 

"Damn Fred and George, I must only have about three lives left," gasped Lee, crawling out as the door closed. He whispered a few words and flicked his wand at the banners over the Slytherin table. He couldn't see in the dark, but he knew the results at breakfast would be hilarious.

TO BE CONTINUED ... clearly an...Epic...cliff-hanger... ;) Review or I'll kill off... Ron! HA! Not really. Review anyway.

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